Powered and sponsored by www.proformracing.com

Main menu

Monthly Archives: August 2013

Post navigation

I feel the need to write about what we witnessed at Belle Vue yesterday in the hope that someone can offer some clarity to the situation. Standard Sunday morning card until the 11.19. Trap 3 opened up at about 3/1 if memory serves me correctly then got smashed into 9/4 very quickly just before the off. The white jacket missed the break but still showed plenty of pace to lead into the bend and then cleared right away from his rivals. It looked like gamble would be landed as even off the final bend trap 3 was still clear although weakening. Then trap 2 turned on the turbo boosters and flew home to pick up the long time leader on the line. Whilst commentating on the race I felt it was too close to call as they flashed past together. Then we saw the still on the line……..

Now whatever way you look at this freeze frame, as suspected trap 2 has nailed the gamble on the line? Yes? We moved the TV frames back one and forward one and trap 2 was in front on all 3 freeze frames.

We waited a minute before the news of the print from the track came through….

The first thing to notice is that the hounds body and leg positions are completely different from the still on the line. The obvious explanation for this is that the actual finishing line and camera position are nowhere near where the white line crosses the track. The thing that makes this confusing is that all the freeze frames moved back or forward showed trap 2 as the winner. What made this even more interesting is that after the pics appeared on Twitter, the finishing line magically disappeared for the next few races before re-appearing later in the card.

Jonathan Kay reported that all bookmakers and punters on course were happy with the result. Well of course they were, they were all on.

A few people would like some clarity so I thought I would write this out so maybe someone from the track or the racing post can clarify where exactly the winning line is? Maybe it’s near the final bend?